Video of Vail Valley child goes viral

Kyla Wollfe's parents shot a video of her playing with a baby gorilla during a trip to the Atlanta zoo. After five years a television show posted the video and now it's gone viral with more than 1 million hits.

Kyla Wolffe is all smiles after her latest surgery. She was born with fibular hemimelia and has had more surgeries than she can count. She's the star of a video that's gone viral of her playing with a baby gorilla in the Atlanta zoo.

Kyla Wollfe's parents shot a video of her playing with this baby gorilla during a trip to the Atlanta zoo. After five years a television show posted the video and now it's viral with more than 1 million hits.

To see the video of Kyla Wolffe and the gorilla, go to http://youtube/CxcDsa5GJQE

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You know that viral video of the cute girl playing with a baby gorilla in the zoo?

We know who that is, and now do you too.

Kyla Wolffe is a fourth grader at Stone Creek Charter School.

When she was 4 years old, her parents took her to the Atlanta zoo and after a while they wandered over to the gorilla habitat. Kyla made a beeline for the window where two baby gorillas were relaxing. One wandered off, but the other stayed right there to play with Kyla.

“I put my face up to the window and it started to mimic me,” Kyla said.

Her parents, Ryan and Michelle, took a video to preserve the adorable moment. Eventually, on a whim they sent it in to America’s Funniest Home Videos. They did this during 2008.

They didn’t think much more about it until last week when Kyla’s grandmother called.

“I just saw Kyla on television!” she said.

“We doubted it was her until we got home and did a search online,” Ryan said. “We were we astounded to find our 5-year-old video was going viral online.”

Viral video

Since the video was posted on one of AFV’s youtube channels on Aug. 20, it’s been picked up by media outlets all over the globe.

“We shot it five years ago when she was 4 years old,” Michelle said. “People see it and ask, ‘That was Kyla?’”

Yup, that was Kyla.

It didn’t make the AFV show in 2008, or since, but the show posted it online late this summer.

So far, Fox, CNN, Good Morning America and several other sites have picked it up. It had more than 1 million hits in 7 days.

“It’s gone totally viral,” Ryan said.

The AFV show says they’re re-visiting it, and wants to make it part of a marketing campaign, they said in a note to the Wolffe family.

“No one seems to know any of the details about the video,” Ryan said. “We have attempted to contact the bigger sites to provide them with the facts about the video and have even contacted 9 News, (where it first aired), but no one has gotten back to us.”

There is a story behind Kyla, as well.

Along with flaming red hair and warm brown eyes, Kyla was born with fibular hemimelia, which is a way of saying she has four toes on her right foot, hip dysplasia, no ACL in either knee and a fused ankle.

“She has been dealing with major leg issues since she was born,” Michelle said.

Kyla has had more surgeries than she can count, and she’s good at math. So far, she’s had three this year.

The Shriners took up her cause, so she spends part of her life traveling to the Salt Lake City hospital. That’s when she’s not playing with her three cats – Basil, Pesto and Noodles — or drawing. Her dad is an architect, so naturally, she creates buildings and furniture from duct tape.